Inside Mac OS X Lion: New Spotlight and Quick View features

In Mac OS X Lion Apple has integrated Spotlight search features with Quick View for previewing results, allowing users to see documents and metadata inline while performing a search.

Quick View popovers in Spotlight, Stacks

The new Spotlight-integrated Quick View is reminiscent of Google's search results previews; simply mouse over results and previews (or additional information, for items that can't be previewed) are displayed as a popover.

Popovers are a relatively new user interface convention Apple began using in Snow Leopard's iCal to associate and tie information that would normally be presented in a floating panel window with a specific item on the screen.

Apple has also made significant use of popovers in the iOS interface, particularly on iPad where presenting or setting information about an item in a popover makes the new 'cartoon speech bubble' concept a perfect fit for the simplified computing experience of the hands-on iOS, without necessitating any additional user interface chrome to close, adjust, or manage the specialized new windows.

In Lion, popovers now provide a Quick View of Spotlight search results, including documents, web pages, contacts, emails and media files, and can also expand word definitions via Dictionary or present metadata for apps, preference files, and other items that offer nothing to preview.

Quick View popovers are also visible from within Stacks, allowing users to target items with the mouse or arrow keys, and then hit the spacebar to present a preview or more information about the item.

I somehow dislike those huge icons in the Spotlight menu. I would've found it logical to keep the smaller size since it's now ridiculously easy to take a closer look at any of the items in the menu. Maybe that will change as development progresses, maybe not.

You can commit no mistake and still lose. That's not a weakness. That's life.

My personal fav is still the "Leopard Aurora" wallpaper from 10.5. It's sleek, modern, but also understated. Has bright and dark in all the right spots.

Ive been using a 1px x 1px black (#000000) image for my backgrounds for as long as Ive been able to change my desktop background. Not a fan of something I dont want to look at distracting me from being productive.

Ive been using a 1px x 1px black (#000000) image for my backgrounds for as long as Ive been able to change my desktop background. Not a fan of something I dont want to look at distracting me from being productive.

In other OSes, sure, but in Mac OS X theyve only had a handful of solid colors to choose from without the option for the color palette. Oddly, if you choose not to fill the screen with the image you get the color palette.

The enhanced Spotlight looks very nice. I guess Quick Look as a feature makes more sense during search than in the Finder. Because in the Finder you're usually navigating to something you already know what it is and where it is, so unlikely you'd want to preview it. Whereas with search of course previewing things is a lot more logical.

I just hope they've fixed the freaking Exposé back to the style it had before Snow Leopard, with all windows sharing the same zoom level and being arranged in a way that best fit the screen. I HATE the evenly-spaced grid-view.

I just hope they've fixed the freaking Exposé back to the style it had before Snow Leopard, with all windows sharing the same zoom level and being arranged in a way that best fit the screen. I HATE the evenly-spaced grid-view.

From what I have learned on the Interwebs Expose is gone - replaced by Mission Control. And Mission Control shows not only windows but windows, full-screen apps, and multiple desktops - basically everything.

And even though it is kind of a grid overall, it is different to Snow Leopard in that app windows are grouped together. And each group has the app icon on it. But no it doesn't go back to the effect of zooming out while maintaining relative sizes.

From what I have learned on the Interwebs Expose is gone - replaced by Mission Control. And Mission Control shows not only windows but windows, full-screen apps, and multiple desktops - basically everything.

Actually, Expose can be re-activated in system preferences (as can overlay dashboard), thankfully.

I appreciate the info. Could you please post instructions on how to do this?

It's really pretty straightforward. Dig in the Core Services folder in System/Library for wherever QuickLook UI stuff is kept, copy those files, and then paste them back into the same place in Lion, replacing the old ones. Then reboot to see the changes.

'Course you'll want to make a backup of the Lion files when this inevitably goes horribly awry.

I was gonna answer that I use(d) DivX to convert to an AppleTV-compatible format, but now looking at their website it turns out DivX can't. Oh well, I stopped using my AppleTV after a week of trying. The lack of supported formats is just too large. Even if I successfully convert video's on my Mac and are able to sync it to the ATV, most of the time it won't play. Or without sound. Or only the first few seconds.

Photo's I don't watch on TV as they look awful to me (HDTV is merely 2Megapixel, and a TV has rectangular pixels as opposed to square ones on my display)

All the Internet bits on ATV I don't use, don't have need for it. My TV can do that as well, but that Samsung interface is total crap. Heck, my DVR can connect to the internet as well, but that Humax box only shows that Samsung does not have a monopoly in fugly interfaces!

It's really pretty straightforward. Dig in the Core Services folder in System/Library for wherever QuickLook UI stuff is kept, copy those files, and then paste them back into the same place in Lion, replacing the old ones. Then reboot to see the changes.

the subjectivity of "pretty straightforward" once again rears its ubiquitous head...

It's amazing how fast you can find ANYTHING by just hitting Command+Space, and then type about 3 keys. I use it for an application launcher and only have the absolute minimum on my Dock.

i used LaunchBar for that for years, and more recently have taken to using Alfred in its stead. now i have to figure out if there are advantages to doing so anymore or if Spotlight can pretty much do it all now.